Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ...

CHAP. XXXIII. Tartar is not in drink. (Book 33)

1. Some suppositions proved before. 2. That Tartarers are not in things constituted. 3. Three Monarchies of things, whence a threefold stone. 4. It far differs from the Tartar of Wine. 5. The Stone in man is made from errour, but not from the intention of Nature. 6. An Argument from the like, is not of value. 7. Some Arguments taking away Tartar out of drink. 8. An opposite Argument. 9. The rash∣ness or heedlesness of the Schools. 10. Two Histories. 11. The boast∣ings of Paracelsus. 12. The swellings in the neck or Kings-Evill, are not from Tartar. 13. Wine is innocent of humane Tartar. 14. Whe∣ther stony or Rockie waters do contain Tartar. 15. Whence there are Strumaes or swellings in mans neck, and not in that of Bruits. 16. A Remedy against those swellings. 17. A Remedy against Scirrus's, and swelling pimples in the face. 18. A preoccupation or prevention. 19. A distinction by a Maxim.

VVHatsoever Arguments do take away Tartar out of Meats, are like premises in this place: But seeing waters do immediately wax stony, the proposition is to be [unspec 1] confirmed by a stronger Engine. In the first place, I have taught, that every Stone is imme∣diately the Son of water, but not of Tartar: And then, that the concretion or growing to∣gether of every Body is from the Seed, but not from the Law of Tartar. Thirdly, that the concretion appointed by the Seed, is from the integrity of nature, and so from the gift of Creation; but not from Tartar, which according to Paracelsus, is nothing but the excrement of a thing.

But a natural product is of its Mother matter, but not of a step-mother; and moreover of a seminal or efficient beginning, in which, all the figures, Idea's, and knowledges of things to [unspec 2] be done, are. At length, the Types or figures of Tartars are not in things by Creation, fra∣med for our destruction, as neither a Medicine of destruction in the Earth: what therefore doth it make to the introducing of the nature of Tartat into Diseases, that a stone is the fruit of water, if the condition of Tartar be not in a stone? Or that Tartar is the fruit of Wine, if there be no such thing in other things? For what doth it prejudice nature, if the phantasie deluding a Stone external, or the Stone internal with a name, shall call it Tartar? And he weakly enough, and without proof affirmeth, that Stones, and every solid Body do mutually agree with Tartar of Wine in every property? For truly that his own assertion is free, without truth and probability: For the Stone in us is generated by another seed, mean, and progress, than Tartar out of Wine, or a Stone out of water, are: To wit, there are three Monarchies of Bodies in the Universe; the Animal, Vegetable, and [unspec 3] Mineral: therefore there is a threefold Stone, and that distinct in the whole Monarchy: For a Mineral Stone differs from the Case of the Kernel of Medlers, Peachies, &c. and both these again from the Stone of Crabs, Bezoar, Snall-shels, Fish-stones, the Stone of Man, &c.

Again, those three Stones do also far differ from the Tartar of Wine, which is not to be reckoned among Stones, seeing it is the concreted Liquor of a Salt: For a Mineral is ei∣ther [unspec 4] a Rockie Stone, which may be turned into Lime; or a small Stone, which is not calcined, as Gems, Marbles, Flints: But both are now concluded in one onely name of Petra or a Rock: But a Vegetable Stone, seeing it is burnable, as the Jeat or Agath, otherwise also, Mineral Sulphurous Stones, it is rather a knotty Wood, than a Rockie Stone: But an Animal Stone is rather a stony bone (because it is partly burnt) than a Rockie Stone. Also for distinction of the stone of man from other stones, that is by Paracelsus called Duelech: Because rockie stones, as well the mineral as vegetable ones, are fruits, natural, necessary, and of the first in∣tention in creating: But Duelech is onely a Disease, and like to a monster: But in other en∣li••ened Creatures, the stone hath obtained a profitable appointment.

Whence it is made manifest, that although waters do beget a Rockie stone; yet that they do not therefore follow the essence, seed, and manner of generation out of the Tartar of [unspec 5] Wine: For Duelech after sin, doth from a diseasie excrement, but not from the intention of nature, nor from a Rockie or tartarous matter, but by accident, to wit, through the errour of the faculty, breed a diseasie seed, through the necessity of a connexed agent: where∣fore I do not admit of Tartar rather in drink than in meat; but if it be potentially in Wine, that comes to passe by the necessity of a connexed agent, and by accident; neither can it have place of exercising forces, or actuating in us, to wit, that by a power, a potential Tartar may be actuated in us; and therefore I do not admit of a tartarous generation in drink, appoint∣ed by God for our destruction: for what if bones are found in the flesh, and the seeds of a [unspec 6] Mineral Rock are stablished in the waters, shall therefore the seed and immediate matter of bones be in Fountains? or the seed of a Mineral Rock, and its immediate matter, be in the flesh, or venal bloud? If not in the venal bloud, then neither therefore in drink and meat: For death is not the handy-work of God: And God saw that whatsoever things he had made, they were good; as well in his own intention of goodness, as in the essence of [unspec 7] the Creature: Therefore there is no matter in the waters, which was created to stir up the Tragedy of Tartar, or a Duelech in us. Moreover, if there be any evil now, or that may come to passe among the digestions, surely that is not from the Creation, appointment, pro∣perty, efficient of matter, and the finall intention of the Creator; but doth issue whol∣ly from our errour, and the corruption of nature: Indeed such things do happen through a received importunity of forreign seeds, a defectuous transmutation of nourishable things, or a not sufficient severe expulsion of hurtful things. Tartar fore-existing, and being solved in the drink, if it were so, verily it should by its appointment presently wax corrupt in us, be∣fore digestions, putrefactions, and resolutions, neither should it expect the counsels of coa∣gulating into the last passage of the Urine: And the same should rather stonifie equally in all: Notwithstanding, seeing the stone doth not grow up in the drink, but onely in the ex∣crements, by the admission of the Salt of the Urine, and the assistance of other co-workers (even as abundantly in my Book of the Disease of the stone) it is presumed, that Duelech doth not consist of a fore-existing Tartar of the drink; which is made plain by a Handicraft resolving thereof in the fire: For Duelech being distilled, the Glasse-vessels also being shut, doth produce a stinking Oyl, lastly, the Spirit, and Chrystals of the salt of the U∣rine, being such kinde of things as are allured out of mans Urine by distilling: For it is certain, that the stomach, bowels, veins, Liver, and kidneys, do not generate Duelech or the stone in man, of their own nature, much lesse do they continue the same, and as yet much lesse of a prepared and fore-existing Tartar in drinks: For else all likewise which do generate mans Urine, and in any man without exception, no other∣wise than as little stones do grow in Crabs without exception, should procreate Duelech: But Duelech doth wax stony from a seed, being at length generated in the Urine by a transmutati∣on of a matter: That seed is so prevalent, that although one subject to the stone, drink no∣thing but distilled water, he should not therefore cease to generate Duelech. But they say, red Wines do generate very much sand in those subject to the stone, therefore they do con∣tain a sandy Tartar: therefore not onely in those subject to the stone, but in all altogether, [unspec 8] they should bewray a Sand; but seeing that thing happens onely in defectuous persons, hence it is made manifest, that the sand is not made by way of matter, but some other way: For truly the stomach of those that are defectuous, should separate the sands before they should come down to the kidneys.

The ignorance of the Schools hath arisen from hence, that they know not, or do not thorow∣ly weigh, that many things are made by transmutation, which were no way materially within: [unspec 9] For truly, none but a ridiculous man will say, that bones are in grasse: This dispute will cease, when I shall shew that Duelech is formed of things far estranged from coagulation: for neither doth it follow; some Wines do contain more of the spirit of Urine, or of a volatile Earth; therefore they contain the stone Tartar, or therefore the Tartar of Wine doth ma∣terially generate the stone of man by its separation of it self. Ginger brings forth much sweat, therefore Ginger containeth very much sweat materially: For the Schools do give their judgement after a rustical manner concerning the things of Nature, not knowing, that many things are brought to passe by the endeavour of the Efficient of transmutation, I say, by the seed of the thing coagulating, and at the time of the Operater's transchanging: which works are never due to matter, nor to their heats, and feigned combates of the Elements.

For I have seen two that were Twins, educated also by the same Nurse, and meats, the elder whereof was subject to the stone, the younger not so: for the milk did contain no more of Tar∣••••r [unspec 10] the one, than for the other. Likewise the Childe of a certain Governour or chief Ruler, being born of two healthy Parents, had three healthy Brothers and Sisters before him; but being nourished onely three moneths by a Nurse that had the stone, he underwent Lithotomy or cutting for the stone, once at seven years, and then again at ten, and thirdly, two years af∣ter; and the last time, he gave up the Ghost under the knife: these two Histories at least, happened not from the coming of a forreign Tartar.

Seeing therefore there is not matter, existence, truth, knowledge, necessity, or conse∣quence [unspec 11] in things taken, which may square themselves unto Tartar; Paracelsus hath to brag∣gingly boasted, that he first found out every cause of Diseases, that he was the chief Monarch of Secrets and Medicine, and that by this his own invention, he hath accused others of igno∣rance: But moreover also, that he did discern by the Tartars of Countries, to what Diseases the Inhabitants were subject: For if there never were Tartar either by creation, or from the curse, which may be the original of Diseases; surely its a frivolous thing, that he hath searched into the same by distilling, and hath found that which never was. Indeed he had seen great stones to be generated in the bottom of waters: Also that in Stiria, Subaudia, Valesia, horrible Strumaes or swellings in the neck, did with a miserable spectacle, deform the shape of man: And he being deceived, hence he concluded, that from the Tartar of wa∣ters, there were stones, Strumaes, and consequently every stopping thing: For he was badly ignorant, and that for the destruction of his followers, that all things do arise from seminal Agents, and that it is granted to them to bring over the matters subjected unto them, accord∣ing to the appointments and ends of the seeds: For indeed although some drink be more hurtful to those that have the stone; yet that is neither Tartar, nor doth it from hence con∣tain it, neither is any thing of the form of Tartar co-thickned into Duelech (as I have taught in its place) but it is the work of that which operates, whatsoever is in the waters, by an actu∣al seed, unto a Rockie Stone or Bole.

But if there be any thing in Wine, it shall be as to the Lee, by it self, but as to Tartar by accident; but not as to Duelech: For thou shalt ask in vain, whether waters in distilling, [unspec 12] are potentially made a Rockie stone: For Rivers and Springs do teach that without labour and expences: But of Wine, a Rockie stone, or Tartar is never made, & much lesse Duelech: neither shall also the plurality of Lees or dregs accuse Tartar: as neither the stone: Be∣cause Duelech is of another Family than Tartar: Hence, by how much the richer vvines are, in Tartar, they ought to be so much the more healthful against Duelech, if Tartar, otherwise, be given to drink for the cleansing of filths.

I agree indeed, that Rockie waters are of a wild disposition, of a mineral condition, and the causers of undigestions, as they do contain strange or forreign things: But they do not [unspec 13] therefore materially contain Duelech in them, altbough they do occasionally destroy digesti∣on, do imprint a rockie middle life: whence the enfeebled vegetative faculty of man puts on that wild inclination: But that makes nothing for the Author of Tartars: For truly, it is a far different thing to be made stony occasionally, from a stonifying virtue of the middle life of things, imprintingly and sealingly introduced into the Archeus: and to be made to have the stone from Tartar melted and resolved in waters, which at length in the period of dayes, may re-assume its former coagulation in the drinker:

For this latter to be in Nature, I deny: but the former I affirm to be among ordinary ef∣fects. But as concerning Strumaes or Kings-Evil-swellings in the Neck, and swelling pimples [unspec 14] in the face, many think that they proceed from mineral waters being drunk; also Paracelsus, from the use of waters of an evil juyce or disposition: But I could wish according to the mans own Doctrine, that he may shew by the fire those evil juyces in waters, whose property it is to be coagulated onely in our last digestion, nor elsewhere than about the neck or throat∣bone: But I know that he never found in waters such a Tartar: Therefore he may be condemned by his own Law, wherein he gives a caution, that none is to be believed, but so far as he is able to demonstrate that thing by the fire. I confess indeed that there is in the water a middle life, whose property it is to stir up the Archeus, and to infect it in the ex∣changing of good nourishment (but not of a forreign Tartar existing in it materially) into a Rockie hardness: But unto Strumaes a matter is required, which by the property of its own Archeus, may be bred to stop up our jawes, and as it were to strangle us, and that without the tast of astriction, or an earthly sharpness or harshness (for otherwise this tast sticking fast in the bosom of the matter, being ripened by the first digestion, dieth) and which being trans∣changed into nourishment, and retaining the antient virtues of the middle life, performs its power more about the throat, than elsewhere: which power being left to it by an heredi∣cary

right, in nourishments, and from hence in the venal bloud, doth convert the nearest nou∣rishment of solid Bodies into a Rockie excrement, which goes unto the throat by a strangling faculty of the directer. And I narrowly examining that thing in Germany, have found Mush∣romes to be strong in the aforesaid poyson of strangling; and that those do often grow out of the Root of a Fountain the Fir-tree, and Pine-trees, in steep Rocks, toward the North, where black Agarick, an Heir of the same crime, is often in the Trunk or Stem. I have learned therefore, that the whole Leffas or Planty juyce of the Earth is there defiled with a Mush∣romy disposition: Therefore I have believed that hard swellings of the Neck are bred by the use of Herbs and waters, which have drunk in this sort of Leffas.

Furthermore, that an Archeal power of the middle life in things, doth beget Strumaes, but not a reviving ill juycy Tartar of the water, the thing it self doth speak: For otherwise, a [unspec 15] Struma should bewray it self no lesse in the bottom of the Belly and Liver, nor more slowly, than in the throat.

For River or ill juicy waters do not respect the throat, nor should promise so great hard∣ness: [unspec 16] Not surely should the hard swelling of the neck or throat dissolve by an astrictive and earthy Remedy, whereby I have many times seen very great Strumaes or hard swellings of the Neck to have vanished away in one onely month, and the strangling suddenly brought on people by a poysonous Mushrome, to be cured: which Remedy is on this wise. Take of Sea-Sponge burnt up into a Coal, 3 ounces; of the bone of the Fish Sepia burnt, long Pepper. Ginger, Pellitory of Spain, Gauls, Sal gemmae, calcined Egg-shels, of each 1 ounce, mix them with the stilled water of the aforesaid Spongei, and let it be dried up by degrees. Take of this Powder half a dram, with half an ounce of Sugar, the Moon decreasing, that it being melted by degrees, may be swallowed: Or make a Lincture or Lohoch. It shall also disperse Botium or the swelling pimp•••• in the face. Others for want of the Sponge, did take the hairy excrescency growing on wild Rose-Trees, very like to the outward Rhine of the Chesnut, rough, and briery or hairy: the powder of which alone, they did use succesfully. Likewise I have used an unction in Stru∣maes, and Schirrus's; Of Oyl of Bay (not adulterated by Hogs-grease) 8 ounces, of Oliba∣num, Mastich, Gum Arabick, Rosin of the Fir-tree, of each 3 ounces; distil them, then distil them again with Pot-Ashes. If therefore the hard swelling of the Neck, or a hard Scirrhus elsewhere, should grow together from a forreign Tartar, it should rather wax hard by hot Remedies, neither should it be so easily dissolved: Therefore the Struma is a defect of the Archeus the transchanger, and not through the coagulation of Tartar: even as concerning Duelech or the stone in man, I have more clearly and abundantly demonstrated: For the Archeus transchangeth every masse subjected unto him, unless being overcome by a more powerful middle life, he shall give place: Therefore the Strama is of good venal bloud, on which, a strangling power of the middle life is felt. And Botium or the swelling pim∣ple of the face, a remedy being taken, perisheth, which is not for dissolving a Rockie matter, if it were of Tartar brought over thither: otherwise, it is altogether impossible that Tartar (if there should be any) should conceive a breathing hole of our life, be made lively, be co-sit∣ted to the members, and be admitted inwards unto the last digestion, & conceive a ferment of the Arterial bloud, but to be discussed or blown away by an unsensible transpiration; as also Schirrhus's bred of vital venal bloud, the aforesaid Remedy being administred.

But besides, the contention is not about the Asses shadow: for truly it is not all one to have denied Tartar to be materially in meats and drinks, and likewise to remain throughout [unspec 17] the shops of the digestions, and therefore at length to be coagulated in miserable men; and it is far remote from thence, to admit of a thing in us, to be transchanged out of a good Cream, Chyle, or venal bloud, into an evil one, by virtue of the middle life transplanting the directions of the Archeus: For as there is one order of generation; so also is there every where another of fore-caution, and healing: Therefore there is no foundation, truth, appearance, or necessity of tartarizing: For which way doth it conduce, to devise Tartar to be the stubborn Prince of coagulations, which oweth his Birth to a fiction? For truly the dis∣positions, coagulations, and resolutions of things do depend on their own Seeds. Duelech is made no lesse of the purest meats and drinks, than of those lesse exact, if the middle life do badly season the Archeus. And then, which way is it convenient, to render meats and drinks which the Lord hath judged good, infamous through a tartatous treachery? I suppose in∣deed, that it was invented by Tartar Hell, or the Infernal, when Satan did now conjecture, that there would speedily be a banishment of Humours out of the Schools of Medicine.

And indeed, seeing every thing is dissolved by the bursting of the bonds which tie the same, it helpeth to have admonished, that coagulated things are not made in us by drying up [unspec 18] (the gowty Chalk excepted); neither by Tartar privily existing in us: surely much lesse

from a stony and limy condition of the Microcosme: For that Chalk after the attained thick∣ness of the Sunovie or degenerated spermatick Muscilage, is afterwards by degrees dried up: Even as elsewhere concerning the Gout. After another manner, even as any Schirrhous thing, and likewise a bole, clay, muckinesse, sand, and Duelech, are in their beginning coagulated and resolved by seminal beginnings, and are far otherwise solved and coagulated, than if a stubborn and unchangeable Tartar of any kind of things, had of its own free accord yielded a foreign curd in us. It is a Sophistication, to have accused not the cause, for a cause, or to have neglected the cause, as not the cause, which Sophistry, if it be wont any where to bring on great straights: surely in healing, as great as may be, full of dangers of life, and damnation, as also of dammages: For one doth well digest, and difficulty separate, but a∣nother doth successfully expell, and troublesomely digest. Lastly, a third doth briefly di∣gest and cause meking; but doth vitiously transchange for himself under the command of a foreign seed. Therefore it is one thing to chastize a forreign impression of the middle life (which consisteth in the concretion or growing together of the thing digested) & it is another thing to expel or separate that which else being retained, would hurt. And that is contained by dissolving and expelling.

Finally, if there should be any Tartar in things taken into the body, ending at length into a stubborn coagulation, which it had treacheroufly brought inward with it, it should every where even contain a desperation of healing: And in this respect a medicine of destruction in the earth had been framed in nature from the beginning by the Lord of things.

Last of all, Tartar is not in meats, as neither in meaty drinks; but in the water there is indeed a seed of small stones, but that Stone is no more Tartar, than a rocky stone is bread: wherefore also from a stonifying Seed, the presence, or power of Tartar can in no wise be concluded.

Likewise, although in superfluities or degenerated venal blood, there be a power unto a Duelech or Schirrhus, yet not unto Tartar; and much lesse that there is Tartar naturally as [unspec 19] well in the blood, as in superfluous excrements: For whatsoever is bred by accident from a foreign and estranged seed, and by a Metaphor, by reason of its coagulation, is likened unto Salt coagulated in wines, is onely by an abusive alienation called back unto Tartar: For Na∣ture hateth metaphorical and poetical liberties. Therefore Tartar is not the internal occasi∣onal matter of diseases.